Infrared thermal imaging (IRT) is a non-invasive, non-contact technique which allows one to measure and visualize infrared radiation. In medicine, thermal imaging has been used for more than 50 years in various clinical settings, including Raynaud's phenomenon and systemic sclerosis. Imaging and quantification of surface body temperature provides an indirect measure of the microcirculation's ov...

In genetically predisposed individuals, viruses, bacteria, or parasitic infectious agents are suspected of inducing autoimmunity and/or exacerbating autoimmune rheumatic diseases (ARD) once self-tolerance is broken. Although direct evidence for this association is still lacking, numerous data from animal models as well as from humans support the hypothesis of a direct contribution of pathogens ...

The existence of patients with signs and symptoms suggestive of a systemic autoimmune disease but not fulfilling the classification criteria for defined diseases is a common experience in clinical practice. The first description of these diseases dates back to 1980, when LeRoy proposed the term "Undifferentiated Connective Tissue Syndromes" (UCTS) to define the early phases of connective tissue...

Fibrosis, characterized by excessive extracellular matrix accumulation, is a common feature of many connective tissue diseases, notably scleroderma (systemic sclerosis). Experimental studies suggest that a complex network of intercellular interactions involving endothelial cells, epithelial cells, fibroblasts and immune cells, using an array of molecular mediators, drives the pathogenic events ...

Connective tissue diseases (CTDs) are a heterogeneous group of disorders that share certain clinical presentations and a disturbed immunoregulation, leading to autoantibody production. Subclinical or overt renal manifestations are frequently observed and complicate the clinical course of CTDs. Alterations of kidney function in Sjögren syndrome, systemic scleroderma (SSc), auto-immune myopathies...

The term connective tissue diseases (CTD) defines a group of illnesses characterized by the presence of immune abnormalities and by widespread inflammation involving various organs and tissues including the lung. These diseases are not frequent in the paediatric age group. Very few data on pulmonary function are available in paediatric CTD. We investigated possible early lung function abnormali...

objective: different surgical procedures have been proposed for the treatment of gingival recessions. the goal of this study was to compare the clinical results of gingival recession treatment using subepithelial connective tissue graft and an acellular dermal matrix allograft. materials and methods: the present study was performed on 5 patients with 9 bilateral miller`s class i or ii gingival ...

background and aims. connective tissue grafts with and without periosteum is used in regenerative treatments of bone and has demonstrated successful outcomes in previous investigations. the aim of present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of connective tissue graft with and without periosteum in regeneration of intrabony defects. materials and methods. in this single-blind randomized spli...